The Irish people are mostly descended from Dan and came to Ireland at various times, under various names, as they migrated by different routes and arrived at different times, having picked up new names along the way. One of those names makes their identity more obvious than the others and that name is the Tuatha de Danaan - the Tribe of Dan; who was the fifth of Jacob/Israel's twelve sons. Jacob/Israel's twelve sons fathered the twelve tribes of Israel.

Prior to the De Danaans were the Nemidhians (Sons of Heaven) who came from Carthage which was a Phoenician Danite settlement or Sanctuary (Nemidh), in what is now Tunisia. The Phoenician sailors of ancient history were mostly Israelites from the tribes of Dan; Gad and Simeon. Phoenicia was a region not a country, just as Europe is a region and not a country.

After the Tuatha de Danaans came to Ireland, there were, at various times, further immigrations of Danites under the name Milesians (sons of Mil, who was a Danite warrior, from which the name milesian later came to mean warrior) and of course later still as Dan-ish Vikings and Norsemen.